Not all who wander to the Golden Heart of Alaska are lost, or trying to make themselves lost.

Take Karl Bushby, for example.

Bushby traveled 15,000 miles on foot, by himself, on a shoestring budget, and through some pretty tough neighborhoods, arriving here in May.

He has traveled from the southernmost tip of South America, in Chile, to his present location in Fairbanks, dragging his gear in a dollie cart named "The Beast".

He found it "quite easy" to travel through Latin America with or without visas.  But when he overstayed his allotted time in a country, trouble could occur, like when he was jailed briefly in Columbia.

 Luckily, Bushby isn't expecting to be traveling through many more dangerous hotspots like what he faced in Columbia, "which was a civil war scenario". But "even Russia can be a bit dodgy at parts."

Bushby is still less than halfway home to Merry Olde England, and for a few more weeks, Fairbanks will be his home.

An ex British paratrooper who signed up for the Army at the fresh age of 16, Bushby is currently waiting in Fairbanks for the Arctic waters to freeze. The Bering Strait will become his bridge to the Eurasian landmass, and his ultimate goal of walking continuously across the world.  At 36,000 miles, the voyage would be the longest by a human on foot.

He will travel up the Yukon River and cross the Chukchi Sea, north of the Bering Strait and into Russia.

"This really will be the crux of it all.  Without a doubt, this will be the most demanding winter of my life."

He has trained for extreme cold before, with the British Army in Northern Norway. He hopes his training in  "arctic survival, coping, living, and fighting in the arctic" will help him survive the dangerous months ahead.

From the Bering Strait, Bushby plans to walk across Asia and Europe, through the channel tunnel and back to England.

When asked about what he was going to do when he was done with the trip, Bushby said, "Don't even think about it. It's impossible to answer that question at the moment."

The Sun Star wishes Karl Bushby well, and hopes that he succeeds in his goal of conquering the world, by foot.

Karl Bushby's website

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